How to Share a Single Keyboard & Mouse Between Multiple Macs & Computers

Want to share a single keyboard and mouse between multiple Macs? How about using a keyboard and mouse attached to your Mac to control an additional PC running Windows or Linux, and even being able to share copy and paste data between the different operating systems? You can do that with the help of a great free tool called Synergy, and setting it up is easier than you might think.Requirements

Confirm that SynergyKM and Synergy is installed on each computer you wish to share a keyboard and mouse between. Nearly every major operating system is supported, including Mac OS X Snow Leopard, OS X Lion, OS X Mountain Lion, Windows XP through Windows 7, Ubuntu Linux, Fedora Linux, amongst others, but this walkthrough will cover the setup with SynergyKM from a Mac standpoint. The only difference when connecting a Windows or Linux machine is the respective interface used to setup the connection.

For the purpose of this walkthrough, we’ll define the primary Mac with the attached keyboard and mouse as the “host server” and any connected Macs sharing that keyboard and mouse as a “client”. This is a multiple step setup process, starting with the host server and moving to each client from there.

Share a Single Mouse & Keyboard Between Multiple Macs with SynergyKM

Now click the “Server Configuration” tab, this is where you will set up the arrangement and orientation of each computer

Click the [+] button to add computers. First add the host server and name it after the machines network Sharing name (example: MacBookPro), then add more screens as appropriate, naming each after their respective network share names and place them according to their physical layout

On the host server machine, confirm that Synergy is turned on from the General tab and then move to the client computers

The host server status should now be waiting for client connections.

From the Client Computers:

Open System Preferences and click the “SynergyKM” control panel

Click on “General” tab and select “Connect to a shared keyboard and mouse”

Click the “Client Configuration” tab and enter the hostname of the Server (example: MacBookPro), alternatively you can enter the host machines IP address

Go back to the “General” tab and click “Turn Synergy On”

The “Status” shown at the bottom of SynergyKM host and client machines should now say “Connected”.

That’s it! You are now free to drag the mouse cursor between each computer. Keyboard control follows the cursor as does the clipboard. Screen savers will typically sync, as does waking each Mac from a screen saver, though a password must be entered on each individual Mac if a lock screen is used.

It’s very important to name each entry to match the machines network Sharing name. Find the names by clicking on the “Sharing” panel in System Preferences on each Mac, it will be next to “Computer Name”. If you encounter problems with setup or connections, it is almost certainly related to the naming of either the host server or the clients.

Update: Some users are experiencing issues setting up SynergyKM as a server in OS X Lion. If you are running into problems setting it up you may want to try limiting the Lion machine to a client function rather than a server, and running server either on a PC or another version of Mac OS X. Alternatively, you can also use Teleport but Teleport is limited to sharing keyboards between Macs only.

For all those who are saying “Doesn’t work on Lion” please think about what you’re saying. Synergy *does* work on Lion, and Mountain Lion too (as many users have said).

It might be that you aren’t using the software correctly, I know it should work out the box, but there can be complications (firewalls, networking issues, having assistive devices disabled, etc) so please get help from our website before saying it doesn’t work specifically on Lion.

And you should try using the stock GUI provided with Synergy, we worked very hard on it. SynergyKM and QuickSynergy are great pices of software and have helped a great number of people, but were designed to provide the missing GUI for 1.3 (which is now an ancient version).

The GUI that comes with 1.4 is the same on all platforms (Mac, Windows, and Linux) and is designed specifically to work with 1.4, so by using this you will get the best user experience.

Thanks, Nick! Fortunately, I read through all the comments and got to yours before I tried following the instructions in the original post. Doing as you said, I used the base Synergy installs on both my Mac and my PC, and did not use SynergyKM. It worked perfectly following the User Guide on your website.

Pity, everyone’s saying it works, but it doesn’t work on Lion. At least doesn’t work on my Macbookpro. Can anyone post an instruction here? I am trying to use Macbookpro as server and windows 7 as client. Thanks in advance!

I had to use the latest beta to get it to work, and often times indeed the scroll gets messed up — what I end up doing is turning the server off and then on again if i need scroll in a client, or just off temporarily if I need it in the server

@Will Good point. Multi-platform. Thanks I use only OS-X so Teleport functions well. I do use Windows as a VM, so in that respect, Teleport is still useful. I’ll still check out Symergy though as I am always open-minded to better ways of doing things if they exist.

Wow, I am disappointed. I am usually very much a fan of OSXDaily, this is just downright bad reporting.
This is an open source project from years ago, with ZERO support for the current Mac OS (Lion) let alone for the upcoming OS. It is also unsupported and does not work.
While I think the idea is great, and if it were a real supported product I would be all over it, and the way this was written that was my expectations. But this is not ready for prime time, and best left to the hackers and people willing to be disappointed.

seemed to fall over at the first hurdle. Couldn’t ‘turn on’ Synergy. Found information that says the ‘beta’ version doesn’t run on Lion?? Spent about 15mins looking for a non-beta version before giving up…. nice idea though….

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